TI: So Mas... let's start and I'll start off by asking: where were you born?

FF: I was born in Seattle.

TI: And when was this?

FF: On January 30, 1925. And I was born right across the street from
the existing Keiro, you know, the Keiro...

TI: So right off of Yesler, right around there.

FF: Right off of Yesler on Seventeenth Avenue. Yeah. There are no more houses
there, but there used to be about three houses in a row, they're all
down now and it's a vacant lot.

TI: And your parents, where are your, where were your parents from?

FF: They're from a town in Shiga prefecture called Hikone which
is a city on the, on that big lake, Biwa Lake in western Japan.

TI: And both of your parents were from the same town?

FF: Yeah, yeah. I don't think that was so unusual, though. I, I think
Isseis tended to marry people from the same prefecture anyway,
if not the same city.

TI: And how did your parents meet? I mean, to get married? Were they,
did they know each other as, as children growing up?

FF: No, I don't think so. Because I think my dad was really quite a few
years, like more than ten years older than my mother, and I think --
and I know he was over here, as a teenager -- and he went back to Japan
to get married. And so, it was I guess the typical Japanese arranged
marriage.

TI: But if your father was ten years older, then your mother must have
been quite young when they, they first met.

FF: Yeah, I think she was about maybe sixteen or seventeen. But I don't
know that that was particularly unique at that time.

TI: What was your father like?

FF: Well, my father as I remember him, was really a kind of a very quiet sort
of guy. He never did say much, you know. And I can't really, I don't
really, can't really say that I really knew the man very well. Like in
most Japanese families, the mother took care of the kids and raised the
kids and the old man went out and, and brought home the bacon, so to
speak. So... but he was a quiet sort of man. And he seemed to be
respected in the community. I mean, he had a lot of visitors and they
seemed to come over and talk business a lot.

TI: What kind of work did your father do?

FF: He was initially, when he came over here I think he was a clerk in
the Furuya Company. The Furuya Company was really sort of a
trading company, and they had a bank, too. He eventually went to work
for the bank. The bank went bankrupt, in the, in the, during the Depression.
And then he... I don't ever remember him being unemployed, though. He
seemed to pick up right away and he went to work for Seattle First
National Bank as a, as a teller and he was in the International Branch
which is on, I think it's Sixth and Jackson Street.

TI: By being a banker -- I'm just sort of imagining back at that period
-- I mean, being a banker must have been a little unusual, working in a
bank, that's a pretty prominent position for a...

FF: Yeah.

TI: ...for an Issei.

FF: Yeah, especially working with a, with a non-Japanese company. I mean, most,
most Isseis, I think, worked for Japanese companies or they had
their own businesses. Yeah, I think his, his position was a little bit
unique. And I think because of it, he was, he kept in touch with
investment opportunities and I think these were the kinds of things that
he advised people on.

TI: How about your mother, what was your mother like?

FF: Well, my mother seemed like really a... she was, I think, a very energetic
type. She was always into something. She, I can remember she went to a,
the old Pacific School -- there is, the Seattle University has a track
down there, on that site used to be a school called Pacific School.
And they had a, they had an English-for-foreigners kind of class there and she was
enrolled in that. I guess, mostly because she wanted to keep track of
her kids who didn't speak Japanese, so she was involved with that. And then she... I know
she was, she went to beauty college and graduated from that. Somewhere, that was
somewhere downtown on First Avenue or something. And then she was also
involved in Japanese cultural stuff. She was very active in an
organization called Hatsunekai, which was a Japanese dance and music
organization.

TI: So it sounds like she actually was able to, to do things in both a
more Caucasian environment and Japanese environment by going to the
school to learn English, as well as a beauty college, as well as the
Japanese culture, so she was able to bridge both. Is that...

FF: Oh yeah, I think she, as I remember, she made a huge effort, really, to
speak English. We spoke mostly English, I think, at home. My dad had
some education here, too, though. He went to an academy that preceded the
present Seattle University. And so he spoke English probably much
better than the average Issei. But he, again, he worked in a
non-Japanese environment so, I guess that was necessary for, well, speaking
English was a necessity for his job.